I have said that the unfounded claim of Texas to the territory between the Nueces and the Rio Norte, was the greatest impediment to peace. Of this there can be no doubt. For if, relinquishing the spirit of military conquest, nothing shall be required but the indemnities due to our citizens, the United States have only to accept the terms which have been offered by the Mexican Government. It consents to yield a territory five degrees of latitude, or near 350 miles in breadth, and extending from New Mexico to the Pacific. Although the greater part of this is quite worthless, yet the portion of California lying between the Sierra Neveda and the Pacific, and including the port of San Francisco, is certainly worth much more than the amount of indemnities justly due to our citizens. It is only in order to satisfy those claims, that an accession of territory may become necessary. It is not believed that the Executive will favor the wild suggestions of a subjugation, or annexation of the whole of Mexico, or of any of its interior provinces. And, if I understand the terms offered by Mr. Trist, there was no intention to include within the cessions required, the Province of New Mexico. But the demand of both Old and New California, or of a sea-coast of more than thirteen hundred miles in length (lat. 23 deg. to 42 deg.), is extravagant and unnecessary. The Peninsula is altogether worthless, and there is nothing worth contending for South of San Diego, or about lat. 32 deg. In saying that, if conquest is not the object of the war, and if the pretended claim of Texas to the Rio del Norte shall be abandoned, there cannot be any insuperable obstacle to the restoration of peace, it is by no means intended to assert that the terms heretofore proposed by either party are at this time proper. And I apprehend that the different views of the subject entertained by those who sincerely desire a speedy and just peace, may create some difficulty. There are some important considerations which may become the subject of subsequent arrangements. For the present, nothing more is strictly required than to adopt the principle of _status ante bellum_, or, in other words, to evacuate the Mexican territory, and to provide for the payment of the indemnities due to our citizens. The scruples of those who object to any cession whatever of territory, except on terms unacceptable to the Southern States, might be removed by a provision, that would only pledge a territory sufficient for the purpose, and leave it in the possession of the United States until the indemnities had been fully paid.